


Settling a Question

by firefly124



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Community: queer_fest, M/M, One Shot, Queer Themes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-28
Updated: 2012-05-28
Packaged: 2017-11-06 04:29:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/414699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firefly124/pseuds/firefly124
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He knew Gwen wouldn't let it rest, though he had dared to hope.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Settling a Question

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [Queer_Fest](http://queer-fest.livejournal.com/) on LiveJournal to the prompt: Ianto Jones, (novels, but the quote is on Wikipedia if you haven't read them) Ianto explains to anyone what he means when he says bisexuals have to question everyone's motives in _The Twilight Streets._ Huge thanks to [The_Silver_Sun](http://the-silver-sun.livejournal.com/) for both beta-reading and Brit-picking. I did tinker afterwards, so any errors or horrid Americanisms are all mine.

Puttering about the tourist information center was soothing in an odd way. It provided some reassurance that the Hub hadn't truly been blown up without having to actually be _in_ the Hub, making it easier to try to banish the residue of the alternate future he'd dreamed under the influence of the Lights. While the details had started to become fuzzy as soon as the Light and Dark had been banished, some aspects Ianto didn't think he would ever forget. He wasn't sure he was ready to be around his coworkers yet, especially Owen and Tosh. He knew what he'd seen hadn't been them, not really, but that didn't make it any easier.

He bit back a sigh when he heard the door behind him creak open and carefully closed.

“Ianto?” Gwen asked in her timid-sounding I'm-about-to-start-a-conversation-about-feelings voice that wasn't really timid at all. “Do you have a minute?”

He supposed he might as well get it over with. He knew she wouldn't let it rest, though he had dared to hope. He set down the pamphlets he'd been sorting next to their display rack and turned to face her. “Of course.”

“Earlier,” she started, then stopped herself. “Look, I'm sorry for putting my foot in it. I hadn't really thought about what it must be like for you.”

“Doesn't matter,” he said quickly. Because it didn't. The last thing he wanted, really, was anyone putting too much thought into his life and the workings of his mind, especially today. 

“It does, though,” she said, reaching out to touch his arm lightly. “I was flippant, and I'm sorry.”

“Thank you,” he said, surprised to find that he meant it.

With a small smile, she pulled away and rested her hand instead on the counter as if for support. “I'm still trying to understand though.”

Ah. Well, of course she was. She was Gwen, wasn't she? And that was what she did, for good or ill and, to be fair, often for good. It was one of the ways he'd known the Gwen in that dream future wasn't acting of her own free will, so he could hardly begrudge her keeping that quality now, even if he'd rather she focused it somewhere else.

“What is it that makes you feel that you can't trust other people?” 

She looked personally hurt by the idea, and Ianto barely suppressed an eyeroll. After today, it was going to be hard enough to trust his three teammates, people he needed to trust with his _life_ , and that had nothing to do with his orientation. But none of that had been real, and what she was asking was, so instead of rolling his eyes at her, he sighed and sank into the chair by the till.

“Even after our conversation today, you still can't understand,” he said. “When people find out that you don't fit neatly into a box, either box, straight or gay, they make assumptions, Gwen. Twice the opportunities on a Saturday night? Twice the fun? Always know when you walk into a pub you'll be leaving with someone, just not all that fussed about who? As if the fact that who you fancy isn't dictated by their genitals means you're attracted to everyone.”

She had the grace to flush, and somehow that sparked a moment of inspiration. 

“Tell me, Gwen, because it's obvious that you fancy blokes that are fit and flash as well as ones that are a bit more earthy, do you tumble for every bloke you meet?”

“Of course not!” Her eyes flared with anger. “Is that what you think of me?”

Ianto didn't answer, just watched as the realization dawned across her features.

“Oh.” Her eyes dropped to something undoubtedly fascinating at the edge of the counter that she traced with a finger.

“If it isn't that, then it's the assumption that you'll cheat, as if being attracted to both genders means you _have_ to be with someone from each. Or every.”

“Every?”

“Seriously, Gwen? Even without factoring in aliens, you have to allow for the possibility of more than two genders. If anything, humanity seems to be a bit odd in trying to force its members into a binary mold, when you think about it.” Apparently, humanity was going to outgrow this little problem in another millennium or three, but he was trying to leave Jack out of this conversation as much as possible. Including him would only lead them in directions Ianto had no desire to discuss.

She digested that for a moment, and Ianto could see the next question forming.

“Before you ask,” he said, “I have no intention of answering whether I have had a threesome, ever, with or without Jack.”

Jack, of course, would have no trouble derailing her questions by launching into a rousing tale in which having merely three humans involved, in whatever configuration of genders, would be boringly tame by comparison. Ianto didn't think he could quite pull that off himself; it really wasn't his style. Besides, the point was to get her to _stop_ thinking about his sex life.

“How did you …?”

“Because that's one of the other assumptions. So, really, perhaps it's not that I can't trust anyone once they know I'm bisexual, it's that I _can_ trust them to make a predictable series of completely unfounded assumptions about me, with the underlying notion that each of them would be inherently a bad thing.” _At least anyone from this century._ Ianto pushed that thought aside as he stood and picked the pamphlets back up as much for something to do as to signal that the conversation was over. 

Not that he'd expected it to work.

“So when you said you couldn't trust people's motives ...” Gwen let her voice trail off, waiting for him to fill in the rest.

“Even when someone says they're trying to understand, they're still usually trying to fit me into one of their neat little boxes.” Not that he didn't appreciate order. Sometimes he thought he was one of the few who truly did. That did not, however, extend to wanting to fit into other peoples' “quaint little categories” as Jack would say.

“I suppose none of us really does fit,” Gwen said thoughtfully. “Especially not here.”

Ianto didn't think one snog under the influence of alien sex gas qualified as really getting it, but at least she seemed to be shifting her focus. So he was utterly caught off guard when she took a step closer and planted a quick kiss on his cheek and could only stare at her in shock.

“Thank you,” she said, her voice oddly heavy.

Ianto's stomach lurched as he realized she wasn't just talking about this conversation. She remembered at least some of that other future too, and he didn't want to know exactly what or how much, though he had a fairly good idea.

“Doesn't matter,” he said thickly.

“Yeah ...” she squeezed his arm lightly, “... it does.”

It took several minutes after she'd left to shake the chill her insistence had sent down his spine along with the phantom sensation of being riddled with bullets, but once he'd done so, Ianto felt a little smile tugging at his lips. The work in the tourist office was more than done, and he thought he was about ready to venture inside and find Jack.


End file.
